Wednesday, 15 February 2012

5.9 Fish Farming

Explain the methods which are used to farm large numbers of fish to provide a source of protein, including maintenance of water quality, control of intraspecific and interspecific predation, control of disease, removal of waste products, quality and frequency of feeding and the use of selective breeding.

Fish is an attractive product for farmers as they have low fat and high protein, but also that they are efficient at turning the nutrients into fish mass.

Fish farming will allow us to control the quality of water (clean), controlling the amount of predators and controlling the pests and diseases. By controlling these factors, it will result in a increase in yield of the fishes. However, where you have a high density of fish, there is a possibility that the transmission of disease will happen very fast and in some cases farmers have taken to use antibiotics which is of concern to human health. The abundance of fish within the fish farm also makes pests common and therefore some farmers will add pesticides to it which is also harmful to consumer health.

Advantages:

Aquaculture industry has provided a lot of employment opportunities

Fish farming may help conserve wild fish resources as it may provide a faster rate of food supply to keep up with the demand

Aquaculture may provide the main source of protein for people in many areas

Disadvantages:

The addition of antibiotics and pesticides may cause health hazards on consumers